


Heroes Get Remembered, But Legends Never Die

by dyadinbloom



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Sandlot (1993)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ben is a Hot Lifeguard, Crack, Entirely too much fun to write for this exchange, F/M, Finn is Benny, Hux is Smalls, I made Finn Benny because Finn just doesn't get enough love in fanfic, POV Alternating, POV Armitage Hux, Poe is Ham, Rey is Squints, Rose is Yeah Yeah, The Sandlot AU, tequila was not just a song from the film but a prop used to write this fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:41:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25118557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dyadinbloom/pseuds/dyadinbloom
Summary: We grew increasingly desperate as Rey gave no sign of moving. The crowd was silent, and the only sounds that could be heard were the deep breaths Ben blew into Rey’s airway and the steadydrip, dripof the water falling from his drenched hair.Or, a gender swap "Sandlot" where Ben is the lifeguard and Rey is the dorky kid with glasses who gets him to perform CPR on her.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 26
Kudos: 75
Collections: Summer Fic Exchange 2020





	1. This Magic Moment

**Author's Note:**

  * For [infinitegalaxies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/infinitegalaxies/gifts).



> I had so much fun writing your prompt, IG! Maybe I drank some Tequila and listened to that song on repeat while I wrote, maybe I didn't.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated 7/17 to add this incredible moodboard by @sofondabooks!

I moved to the neighborhood two weeks before school let out. I was from another state, and I didn’t have a single friend in a thousand miles. It was a lousy way to end the eleventh grade, with no time to make friends before summer.

And that’s about where it started.

* * *

“Brendol!” I heard my mother yelling. “Bren?”

I paused in my fiddling with my erector set as I saw her come around the corner. “Armie, have you seen your father?”

I shook my head, continuing to tinker. My mother, accustomed to my disdain for moving all around the globe thanks to Dad’s job, narrowed her eyes as she watched me work.

“Armie, have you made any friends? I’d like to see you outside with some kids your age, not just hanging out here alone.”

I shrugged. “Mother, I’m fine. It’s hotter than Hades here, in any case, and you know I detest the heat.”

My mother just rolled her eyes and laughed. She turned to leave the room, and then thunked me upside the head with a can of SPF 50. “Don’t forget your sunscreen. Now get outside, Armie.”

* * *

I wandered the neighborhood, a cookie-cutter military layout like so many of our other homes. The cars were the same, the driveways were the same, the small town center was the same.

As I meandered Main Street, I saw that like every other town, they had a little drugstore. This one was called Luke’s. I decided to go inside, maybe grab a malt, although sometimes I _could_ be a bit lactose intolerant.

As I stretched my hand toward the door, it was flung open, nearly crushing me in the process. I spluttered and was nearly mown down by a posse of hooligans, or as some would call them, my fellow teenagers.

“Finn, Finny, gimme the ball!” an olive-skinned boy was yelling. The herd seemed to be crowding around a muscular, dark-skinned guy who was unwrapping a baseball, slamming it into his well-worn leather glove.

“Don’t give Poe the ball,” another girl--a petite Asian with her black ponytail threaded through the back of a ballcap--was arguing. “Give it to me, I’m calling pitcher.”

“Not if I get there first,” a second girl teased back, and I looked toward her, her English accent catching my ear with its familiarity. I moved back to allow the rowdy crew to pass, and the Brit caught my eye as the group was crowding out onto the sidewalk.

“Hi,” she said politely, pulling mirrored sunglasses out of her hair and slipping them over her eyes. “I’m Rey. Are you new here?”

“Yes, I’m Armitage,” I said, extending my hand formally.

The girl quirked a grin but shook my hand firmly. “New to America or just to town?”

“I was in the states when I was young, but I’ve only just returned.”

Rey laughed a little. “Yeah, you sound like you just left high tea with the Queen herself.” She pushed her sunglasses up her nose and gestured around to her friends, who’d waited for her but not joined in the conversation. “Guys, this is Armitage,” she said, and lifted an arm to continue introductions. “This is Rose, the mother hen,” she said, pointing to the Asian girl. “Finn is the big one, our star athlete,” and Finn smiled and lifted a hand in greeting, his white teeth bright against his dark skin. “Poe is our catcher and is _not_ to be trusted,” she said, rolling her eyes, and as the olive-skinned guy tipped his ballcap to me, Rey muttered under her breath, “he’s a total ham.”

Poe lifted his arms in objection. “Whaddaya mean, Squints?!” he crooned at Rey, the picture of a wounded man.

Rey rolled her eyes and ignored him, and quickly identified the others, who I surmised were a bit of a ragtag baseball team. “Do you play?” she asked. “If you’re anything like me, you didn’t learn about baseball until you moved stateside, so no judgement if you’re not familiar.”

“I’m not,” I admitted.

“Well, Armitage--Jesus, what a name--you gotta join us,” Finn demanded. “We’ve been a man short for weeks and I’m sick of rotating all the positions.” He slung an arm around me and I found myself being dragged behind the group of friends as they swarmed down the sidewalk. “You got a nickname?”

“My parents call me Armie,” I admitted, pulling at the neck of my shirt in the oppressive heat.

Finn snorted. “Still a little pretentious,” he said, somehow making the sadly accurate comment seem more sympathetic than insulting. “We gotta get you a new title.” I decided telling him I _did_ have an actual title, and that Rey hadn’t been too far off in that I _had_ enjoyed tea with the Queen before, was probably not going to enhance my social standing.

He side-eyed me, taking in my tall but lanky frame, bright red hair, and pasty white skin. I held my breath, sure I would hear some version of the classic beanpole or carrot nicknames I’d been dubbed before. 

Finn yanked a ballcap out of his back pocket and slapped it into my hand. “Well, you’re a tall bag of bones, but I’m gonna call you Smalls,” he said, poking me in the side, where it was all too easy to feel my ribs through my thin shirt.

“Yo, guys,” he yelled to the team. “Smalls is gonna join us!”

The gang cheered, and Rey tipped her sunglasses down to wink at me. “Welcome to the team,” she said. “C’mon, we’re headed to the Sandlot. Let’s play ball!”

* * *

There was nothing this crew, who called themselves the Sandies, loved more than baseball. It seemed that it was also true that in this small town, there was nothing else _to_ do but play baseball, but the team still gave it their all. Finn, the unspoken leader, had a natural talent, hitting heaters out of the park while also keeping everyone's tempers cool. Poe was indeed a ham and cracked jokes constantly, haggling batters and his teammates with equal smarminess. Rose was fierce one moment and kind the next, willing to tackle her own teammate if they were about to err, and then dust them off when she hauled them up out of the dirt.

Rey was the quietest, keeping to herself at shortstop, her eyes hidden behind her sunglasses most of the time. When she did remove them, she squinted comically at the sun, which was ever-present that summer.

And so it was that one morning, the arid heat had reached abysmally high levels, and the whole team was sprawled around the cooler and its last drops of water.

“Finny, we can’t play today,” Rose whined. “It’s too hot. I’m melting.”

Poe was vigorously fanning himself with his hat in one hand and his glove in the other. “My hair is sweating. This constitutes a national emergency.”

Finn looked around in disgust as everyone grumbled. There was nowhere in the world he’d rather be than in the Sandlot, but if he couldn’t be there, he’d join the crew at our second favorite place of the summer.

* * *

The pool was crowded most days, and today was no exception. As I trailed behind my new friends, I watched in mild horror as they shed their outermost layers and sprinted toward the pool, jumping into the clear blue water with little to no abandon, letting their garments fall where they may. Poe spared a moment to flirt with some sunbathers, but cannonballed in behind everyone else with an impressive splash.

I couldn’t help but tidy everyone’s belongings, piling clothes and caps and gloves and even a few coveted baseballs together as I pulled out my sunblock.

“C’mon, Smalls!” Finn called. “You won’t drown, I promise!”

“Yeah,” Poe agreed, treading water as he carefully slicked back his hair, preening for the ladies watching. “We have our talented squad of lifesavers here to save your pale ass if need be.” Poe gestured expansively to the lifeguards sitting loftily in their raised chairs, looking less than alert behind red caps and black sunglasses. Two women and one man gazed down at the pool in mild disinterest, and I couldn’t blame them for seeming bored. I’m sure the most action they ever saw in this little town was a toddler sprinting off away from his mother toward the deep end.

After slathering myself in SPF 50, I waded carefully into the cool water, coming up next to Rey, who was floating in the shallows.

She sighed in contentment and I lowered myself further into the pool, sitting down so the water covered my shoulders. I gazed around at my team and felt happy and content to finally belong.

“How’s the view?” Rey inquired lazily, noting my perusal of the poolgoers.

“It’s not like the beaches of England, but it _is_ refreshing,” I admitted.

“They don’t have lifeguards that look like _that_ in England either,” she said, inclining her head toward the lone male lifeguard.

I looked more closely, and realized that his slouched posture was hiding some serious height. The guy had long, dark hair that was pulled into a half knot behind his red sun visor, his face hidden behind black sunglasses that seemed to mask his identity.

“Who’s that?” I asked, ever ignorant about so many things in this town.

“Ben Solo,” Rey veritably sighed, straightening up and removing her sunglasses to squint up at him. She pulled the wet cotton of my tee shirt toward her to polish the lenses (yes, of course I was still wearing a shirt; I wasn’t trying to get _skin cancer_ or something), her narrowed eyes focused on Ben the whole time.

“Every summer, there he is,” she sighed. “Lotioning, oiling, oiling, lotioning. Look at him. He knows _exactly_ what he’s doing.” Her eyes narrowed as if Ben Solo’s very existence had been designed to torture her. 

As if on cue, Ben reached for a can of sunscreen and sprayed it over his admittedly impressive pecs. His large biceps flexed as he rubbed the sunscreen around his chest, and I looked worriedly over at Rey to see what his actions were doing to her. Sure enough, she looked half crazed, eyes wide and fixed on the circular motions his hands made.

“Ugh,” she cried, affixing her sunglasses to her face. “I can’t take it anymore!”

Rey stormed out of the pool, shaking her shoulder length hair back as she skirted the perimeter, walking with a purpose.

As she passed Ben’s lifeguard tower, Rey slid her sunglasses off. She nibbled the end of the glasses arm suggestively, wiggling her fingers at Ben as she passed in her bikini. I glanced at Ben to see his reaction, and sure enough, he was looking. His raised eyebrows were visible above his sunglasses as he watched Rey saunter by, hips swinging as she strolled around the corner of the pool to the diving board. 

I watched in befuddlement as Rey climbed the ladder, wondering if she hoped to impress Ben with a fancy dive. That’s when I noticed that our teammates were surfacing from the water, watching Rey in a similarly confused manner.

“What’s she doing?” I heard Finn ask.

“Dunno,” said Poe, “but we all know she can’t swim worth a crap. Doggy paddles for days.” 

Alarmed, I looked from Ben, whose attention was riveted on the diving board, to Rey, who gave a cheeky wink to the Sandies and then blew a kiss to Ben before raising her arms and diving into the water with an admirable lack of grace.

The water calmed and when Rey failed to surface, Finn, Poe, and Rose started thrashing toward her end of the pool, screaming.

“REY!” Finn yelled.

“Squints!!” Poe shouted in desperation.

“You goddamn idiot,” I heard Rose mutter as she frantically paddled toward her friend.

But Ben was faster than them all. With impressive alacrity, he stripped off his hat, whistle, and sunglasses and dove into the pool. I couldn’t help but notice his aristocratic features as they were revealed--deep brown eyes framed by eyebrows that were creased in frantic concern.

We all watched with bated breath as Ben vanished beneath the surface of the water, which churned as his strong legs kicked him down to the bottom.

Soon enough, Ben emerged, towing a bedraggled Rey, whose hair was tangled over her eyes, her arms limp as they hung over Ben’s shoulder.

Rey was hauled out of the pool and Ben leaped from the water, shoving aside the other lifeguards and kneeling down beside Rey. I watched as he tenderly swiped the wet hair out of her face, bending his ear to her lips. He pressed his fingers to her throat, checking for a pulse, and clutched his hands together as he pressed the heels of his palms down on her small chest.

Ben pinched Rey’s nose shut with the fingers of one massive hand and sealed his mouth to hers, blowing air into her lungs. With every breath, he tilted his head to her chest, his dripping black locks tickling her face.

But there was no movement from Rey.

“Oh god,” Finn was saying.

“Come on, Squints,” Poe begged. “You gotta pull through.”

“Fuck, she looks like a dead fish,” Rose moaned.

We grew increasingly desperate as Rey gave no sign of moving. The crowd was silent, and the only sounds that could be heard were the deep breaths Ben blew into Rey’s airway and the steady _drip, drip_ of the water falling from his drenched hair.

As Ben pressed his ear to Rey’s chest, I thought I heard him choke out a sob, and then, to my incredulity, I saw Rey’s lips quirk up into a small smile. Hazel eyes peered out at us from between her wet lashes, winked in our direction, and my eyes nearly popped out of my skull. She quickly schooled her face back to neutral, and I was frozen, flabbergasted.

This time, when Ben held Rey’s nose and pressed his mouth to hers, Rey wrapped a lean arm around Ben’s neck and pulled him down to her body, kissing him with all her might. The crowd went wild, screeching with glee as Rey arched her back, molding her body to Ben’s, who was spluttering and trying to regain his balance, attempting to pull away from Rey. Despite his best efforts, Rey was definitely able to slide her tongue into his mouth and earn at least some kind of response from Ben, who groaned as if in pain.

Finally, Ben’s sheer strength bested the immobility he’d experienced in his shock, and he reared up on his knees, ripping his kiss-swollen mouth away from Rey’s.

“What the FUCK!” he bellowed, and it quickly became apparent that Ben was a very big man, that he had a very deep voice, and that he was _very_ pissed off.

“OUT!” he roared, rising to his feet and dragging Rey up by the hand, who was entirely unrepentant if her toothy grin was any indication.

“OUT, I said!” Ben was moving fast, yanking Rey behind him, muttering darkly under his breath. “Scared twenty years off my life--so goddamn ridiculous, what were you _thinking_ \--absolute idiocy--” As Ben led the charge, the crowd herded the rest of us out of the pool as well, throwing our clothes and ballcaps and gloves at us, and I couldn’t help but grin the whole way. I felt like I was in a mosh pit, having the time of my life, completely out of control, and I looked over to see Poe grinning in a similar manner. 

When Ben gave Rey one last shove past the fence, she turned toward him, some of her adrenaline fading as she faced her crush. He absolutely dwarfed her, his chest heaving in his outrage, and his eyes were so dark they looked nearly black.

I expected her to cower in fear--I certainly would have, and had, in fact, in the face of many a bully--but she stood her ground, inches from Ben’s ire. Rey tilted her chin up and her sunglasses appeared in her hand, thrust there by Poe, no doubt. After letting her eyes drift down to Ben’s lips one more time, she slid the mirrored lenses over her eyes.

“See you around, kid,” she said, and turned on her heel, flouncing away with the rest of us scrambling after her into a summery twilit evening.


	2. Wipeout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey faces the music after her antics at the pool...and the Beast makes an appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> InfiniteGalaxies, I hope you enjoy this chapter! I was hoping we'd get to some smut but...my characters insisted we have a bit of in-character 50s slow burn.

As the team hustled back to the Sandlot, the twilight giving way to a starry night, the mood was raucous.

“Did you plan that?!” Poe screeched.

“Of course I did!” Rey said, smug. “Been plannin’ it for years.” 

“Are you insane!?” Poe yelled.

“Yeah yeah! What planet are you from?!” Rose squealed.

Finn grimaced. “You know he’s not gonna forget this, Rey,” he vowed darkly. “Ben Solo isn’t what I’d call a forgiving guy.”

I thought Rey looked a little uncomfortable behind the lenses of her mirrored sunglasses, but I suppose that was to be expected. What she’d done was sneaky, rotten, and low. 

And _cool._ Maybe the gutsiest thing I’d ever seen.

Not another one among us, not even in a million years, for a million dollars, would have had the guts to put the move on a lifeguard.

* * *

After her stunt at the pool, Rey had become something of a hero among the Sandies. Finn was still our unspoken leader, sure, but now Rey had her own special clout.

Which was a good thing, because the word was that Ben Solo had some unfinished business with Rey.

He’d been looking for her, but she was hard to pin down. Like a lot of kids in town, once she’d graduated high school, nobody really cared where she went or what she did. She never really had a family to begin with, and her foster guardian had washed his hands of her when she turned eighteen.

My mother was eager to take Rey under her wing, and insisted she join us for dinner as often as possible. Mother fed her fried chicken, meatloaf, and all the mashed potatoes she could muster.

My father was less keen on Rey, since lineage and rank were such a big deal to him and all, but Rey didn’t seem like she could’ve cared less. She stuffed her face, helped with the dishes, said her thanks, and hustled out the door to who knows where.

Every morning, our team would meet up at the Sandlot like usual. We played ball, told jokes, chewed gum. And in the evenings, we’d go to Luke’s drugstore to grab a malt and a new baseball if we needed one. Sometimes we’d get a glimpse of Ben Solo coming down the sidewalk, glowering and shoving anyone who got in his way, and we’d hightail it out of there to keep Rey hidden from him.

“That guy’s a monster,” Poe said, all of us trying to catch our breath in an alley after one such occasion. Ben had been trying to track down Rey for the better part of a month, with no luck, thanks to Rey’s inherent slipperiness and the combined efforts of the Sandies.

“He’s a beast,” Rose agreed, panting. “You better watch out, Squints.”

I gasped for breath with everyone else, wondering if I needed to run home for my inhaler. “Has he always been that...intense?” I asked.

“Yeah,” the entire team chorused emphatically.

“In high school, he was quarterback, but he’d flat out tackle anybody who tried to sack him,” Poe elaborated, a note of fervent admiration in his voice. “Scared the shit out of all our rival teams.”

Finn wiped sweat from his brow with the hem of his tee shirt. “I hope you’ve been practicing your sprints, Rey. Ben’s gonna catch you sooner or later.”

Rey just squinted at us, breathing hard from our flight. “Don’t worry about me, guys,” she reassured us. “I’ll be fine. I always am.”

* * *

July was winding down and everyone was looking forward to the big town picnic that traditionally marked the end of summer. The college kids would be leaving in a week or so, the grade school kids only had a few more weeks of freedom, and the parents couldn’t wait for their houses to clear out.

The day of the picnic, we were all at the Sandlot, like usual. We’d procured a new ball that morning, the seams and stitches and leather in pristine condition. We’d fielded a whole team, and everyone was in high spirits.

I suppose it’s only natural that I was the first one to cotton on to what was about to happen. I’d always been pretty quick on the uptake, and from my coveted position in right field, I had a direct line of sight to the path that led to the baseball diamond from behind home plate.

Everyone else had their eyes glued to the action _at_ the plate, but I’d always been a little prone to distraction, so naturally, my attention wandered.

Rose was pitching, Poe was catching, Finn was batting, and everyone was waiting to see what Finn ‘The Storm’ Trooper was going to do with this ball. Rose had been up in arms about something all morning, and was slinging heaters toward the plate with all her might.

I glanced around past Finn, wishing we had maybe a little crowd to see my pal in all his athletic glory, and I thought I saw the outline of someone approaching the plate. _Cool, a fan,_ I thought, but then I had to pay attention because I heard an almighty _crack_ and looked to see that Finn had swung and connected with awesome results.

A ball, of sorts, was headed my way at a rapid clip. My eyes widened and I frantically sprinted toward the shape that loomed closer every second.

“What the--” It looked like a bird was flapping its way right into my glove, which is probably why I caught it.

The team cheered at my catch, everyone whooping and clapping, but for some reason Finn kept right on running around the bases.

I opened my glove and busted out laughing in disbelief at what I saw. Finn had hit the guts out of that brand new baseball, and all that I’d caught was the ripped seams and scuffed leather. The rest of the ball had sailed right over the fence behind my head, a hell of a home run if I ever saw one. Everyone was staring at me, wondering what the holdup was, and I chuckled and started to run to the infield to show everyone what I had.

Holding my glove aloft, I jogged toward the gang and then stopped in my tracks. Because there, behind home plate, his fingers hooked menacingly in the chain link fence, was…

“BEN SOLO!” I screeched.

Rey’s head whipped around so fast I barely saw her move. “Oh, _shit_ ,” I heard her yell.

And then, like a shot, she was off and running, making tracks off the third base line and into town.

Ben darted after her, letting out a war whoop that put terror in my bones.

“What are we waiting for?!” Rose shrieked. “Let’s go, guys!”

The busted ball forgotten, the rest of us took off in hot pursuit of Ben and Rey.

* * *

Ben was a big guy, powerfully built from his days playing ball in high school, but Rey had him beat in agility and downright scrappiness. She tore through a side street, leading us on a wild chase that turned into a hurdling contest of sorts as she upended garbage cans, patio chairs, and the occasional abandoned tricycle, with Ben in close second. His long legs let him leap over her obstacles with ease, but they cost him precious seconds in his chase.

Rey cut through a backyard, a grocery parking lot, and an alley, before I found myself on familiar territory. We sprinted through the crowds at the pool, mothers shrieking as their children were nearly mown down, teens cheering for Rey or Ben.

“Mommy, mommy, the lifeguard!” I heard a little girl saying, pointing at Ben.

As Ben dashed past, the girl continued, “ooooooh, a _big_ lifeguard.”

I tipped my ballcap apologetically toward the mother, who was looking downright scandalized, but I couldn’t keep a grin off my face. Once again, I found myself enjoying these absurd adventures we got up to all the time. My teammates sported the same wide smiles as we chased after our friend.

Finn, leading the pack, was doing his best to keep a level head, but his frequent shrieks of “REY!!” probably did more to unnerve his friend than to spur her on.

Poe, for his part, was laughing like a maniac. “This is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen!”

Rose used her nerves to fuel her sprint. “He’s gonna catch her,” she fretted, pumping her legs and gaining ground on the chase in a way that I had to admire.

From the pool, we tore through the movie theatre and onto Main Street, the familiar sight of Luke’s drugstore offering a backdrop for the pursuit. Rey was looking a little winded, but Ben looked like he hadn’t even broken a sweat.

I glanced a little closer at his feet--why, of course Ben Solo would be wearing P.F. Flyers, guaranteed to make a kid run faster and jump higher. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, seeing as he came from a family that was loaded. Still, I did feel that it gave him somewhat of an unsporting advantage.

It was at this time that Rey veered left and careened headlong into the picnic preparations. She narrowly dodged desserts, picnic fare, and fascinated spectators, leaping over tables and ducking under banners.

Ben pursued her with admirable ferocity; he shoved through anything and everything in his way with a single-minded focus that gave me an idea of the football player he must have been a few years ago. I was, quite frankly, thankful I wasn’t the one being chased.

Rey looped around the parade route, shrieking at us as she passed. “Look out! Sandlot! Sandlot!”

“Sandlot, guys!!” Finn yelled. “Shortcut!”

We darted through the woods, arriving at the eerily silent ballfield, the dust from our feet settling as we waited with bated breath for Rey and Ben to appear.

But they never did.

* * *

Rey sprinted into the alley that led to the Sandlot, her feet thudding on the dusty ground, her breath loud in her ears. She chanced a look behind her, certain she would see the intimidating but gorgeous sight of Ben Solo pursuing her.

But he was nowhere to be found.

Rey slowed to a jog, but was too experienced in being taken by surprise in her life to let her guard down completely. She continued to glance around, and tried to quiet her breathing as best she could.

No sign of Ben. No heavy footfalls as he ran behind her, no menacing growls as he shoved things and people out of his way. Nothing at all.

Rey came to a halt, pulling off her sunglasses, spinning to see the area around her. She’d come to the end of the alley, her path splitting to either lead her back toward town or onto a trail that led to the Sandlot. She scurried toward the latter, squinting over her shoulder one last time, seeing no sign of Ben.

She almost felt a little disappointed.

“You can’t hide, Rey.”

Rey shrieked at the sound of Ben’s deep voice, whirling around to see him blocking the entrance to the woods.

“Not from me,” he continued, stepping closer, looming over her, looking like a summer snack in his tee shirt and dark denim jeans, his hair gelled just enough to keep it out of his face. His chest heaved from the exertion of chasing her, and he looked undeniably angry.

But also incredibly, incredibly hot.

Rey tensed, ready to spring into action and run away again...but something held her in place as Ben took another step closer to her.

Other than that fateful day at the pool, she’d never been this close to him. And even then, she hadn’t gotten to look her fill, having to steal a kiss and run.

But up close, she could see he was just as beautiful as she remembered, his full lips red and tempting, his broad chest made to look even wider by the way his tight white shirt stretched across it.

Ben stalked even closer, and Rey’s eyes fell to his mouth, then flicked hungrily back up to his eyes. She didn’t move; couldn’t move, even if she wanted to, and for some reason, she just...didn’t.

They were face to face now, a sense of deja vu settling over Rey as she thought back to when he’d tossed her out of the pool. He loomed over her, both their chests heaving as they breathed each other in deeply. She could see the glisten of sweat on his brow from his efforts, could smell the way he’d perspired as he chased her. His scent was divine; warm, male, spicy, and somehow still very clean.

“Rey,” Ben murmured, his voice low and deep and heavy. It settled over her like a blanket and she felt her eyelids droop as he grasped her hips and pulled her flush against him. Their mouths were a breath apart, his dark eyes staring into her hazel ones, the barest hint of a grin tugging at Ben’s full mouth. “I finally caught you.”

“Maybe I wanted to be caught,” Rey countered.

“I’ve been wanting to catch you for _years,_ Rey,” Ben growled. “Years.”

Rey’s eyes widened. “Me? But I’m nobody. Nothing. Everyone in this town thinks so.”

Ben shook his head fervently. “Maybe this town thinks you’re nothing. But you’re not. Not to me.”

Rey recognized the light that shone in Ben’s eyes: it was hope, something she had in spades; and a good thing, too, because without it she’d never have gotten by in her hardscrabble life. She knew what Ben was offering.

A dream she’d had a few nights ago floated to her mind. Babe Ruth, her personal baseball hero, had spoken words that hadn’t made sense at the time. _Everybody gets one chance to do something great_ , he’d said. _Most people never take the chance, either 'cause they're too scared...or they don't recognize it when it spits on their shoes._

It made sense now. Rey knew that this was her big chance, and she shouldn't let it go by.

So she didn’t. 

She rose up on her tiptoes and pressed her mouth to Ben’s for the second time in her life, and this time, he kissed her back.

His full lips parted and he dragged his tongue against her bottom lip, powerful arms caging her, pulling her closer to him. Rey sighed out a breath and tightened her arms around Ben’s neck, climbing him like ivy. Her mouth opened to him as he slanted his lips over hers, and one hand slid up her spine to cup the base of her skull, cradling her head gently as he plundered her mouth.

Was this heaven? Rey thought it might be.

He pulled away from her mouth, leaving her gasping, desperate to taste those kiss swollen lips once more. “Rey,” he murmured, his lips trailing along her cheek, down to her jaw. “Let me take you home. Let me see you.” He kissed her neck. “Touch you.” He kissed her collarbone. “Feel you.” He kissed her shoulder. “Taste you.” He licked a stripe up her neck and latched onto her mouth again, nibbling her bottom lip. “Rey. Please.”

Rey was fighting for common sense, but wanted to give into temptation so, so badly. She pulled away far enough to meet his eyes. “Ben…” she trailed off.

“I don’t want this to be a one time thing,” he murmured, his gaze heated on her. “I’ve been waiting for you to graduate, to stop teasing me with those bikinis every summer, to see your beautiful eyes behind those damned sunglasses…” he pressed kisses to her lips between each phrase. “I’ve been waiting for you to be mine.”

Rey gasped. “I want to be,” she admitted, though it didn’t come easily to her. Vulnerability had never served her well. “I think I already am.”

Ben grinned wolfishly. He bent, sliding his hands down her back and over her denim cutoffs, to grab the backs of her thighs and lift her to him. She looped her long legs around his waist and groaned into his mouth as he devoured her.

When they broke apart, he was smiling into her eyes. She smiled back up at him, feeling like she’d finally found a home in his arms. Their love, she knew, was going to be legendary.

And the rest of the Babe’s words floated to the front of her mind.

_Heroes get remembered, but legends never die. Follow your heart, kid, and you’ll never go wrong._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic has been such fun to write. I can't wait to share the conclusion next week!


	3. Tequila

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We find out what the Sandies have been up to for the past twenty years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IG, here is the conclusion to your Sandlot fic! You requested smut, but as a fellow ReylOld, I had an easier time concocting some grown up married lovin' rather than the intense newness of their first time together. I hope you enjoy!

That summer, the wild Rey and the beast Ben tamed one another, just a bit.

Rey still spent her days with us at the Sandlot, and Ben still towered over townspeople from his lifeguard stand at the pool.

But in the evenings, they were inseparable. The drugstore, the drive-in, the park, and every sidewalk in town occasionally featured the startling sight of Ben and Rey holding hands, small smiles on their faces.

Squints and Solo, as impossible as they seemed, seemed to click perfectly. They were the missing pieces of a puzzle the other had been longing to complete.

After that fateful day, when Ben had chased Rey through town to the astonishment of everyone who watched, Rey came to our house for dinner less and less. If she did come, half the time she brought Ben, but she enjoyed dinner with the Solos or sharing a burger with Ben at the diner just as often.

My mother, sensing love in the air, encouraged me to pursue a romance with all the energy she’d been pouring into me ‘getting a social life’ and ‘learning to play catch.’

“Armie,” she constantly pestered me. “Find yourself a nice young person and settle down. Plant some roots.” 

The problem was, the singles around town were dropping like flies.

Ben and Rey seemed to have started a trend, giving everyone the courage they needed to take whatever plunge they’d been longing to. There was something about the whole town seeing Rey steal a kiss from Ben, and seeing Ben chase Rey to the ends of the earth, that inspired grand gestures and first loves alike.

Finn and Poe, after dancing around each other for _ages_ , finally took the plunge. While the town at large didn’t know the extent of their relationship, the team and our wider circle of friends did, and we took it upon ourselves to protect our teammates from the judgement and vitriol that could sometimes be found in small towns like ours.

Our other teammates grew bolder, too, and dated in the evenings. Jess and Snap, Kaydel and DJ; heck, even Phasma and Mitaka could be seen awkwardly cuddling in the last row of the movie theatre. Everybody seemed happy. 

Ben and Rey, too, were happier. Ben was calmer, Rey was more centered, and the roots they were putting down were twining together. Ben’s parents, Han and Leia, were overjoyed.

That left me, gangly and awkward and always the new kid...and one other person.

One very special, blessedly single, amazingly beautiful person.

And that’s why, one Friday night, I was standing on a dimly lit front porch, pulling at the collar of my starched shirt, holding a dozen red roses and smiling tentatively as I rang the bell.

I heard footsteps, and then the door opened, and I quite forgot how to speak.

Not that I was ever especially articulate, but I didn’t think anyone could blame me for my stunned silence in the face of a petite, curvy body in a fluttery white dress, long black hair that wasn’t in a ballcap for once, and the brightest smile in the galaxy.

I thrust the flowers out in front of me, and she smiled.

“Roses?” she asked, raising a brow.

“They were the only red flower,” I blurted. “And I really wanted red. Reminds me of the seam of a baseball, which is special to me, you see, because of how we met--”

Rose shut me up in the most effective way possible: she kissed me. I felt thoroughly dazed, though dimly aware of the way Rose was pulling me down to her level by the tie, her other hand clutching the roses as they were slowly crushed in the shrinking space between us. 

“You’re killin’ me, Smalls,” she said, and I grinned at her, and she yanked me inside.

* * *

We all lived together in the neighborhood for a couple more years, and every summer was great. But none of them ever came close to that first one. When one guy would move away, we never replaced him on the team with anyone else. We just kept the game going like he was still there.

I kept in touch with everyone over the years, and I found out that Snap’s parents shipped him off to military school. He grew a beard and flew reconnaissance in the air force for ten years.

DJ, well...DJ got really into the 60s, and no one ever saw him again.

Kaydel and Jess went into business with their college friend, Jannah. The three of them started out small, helping orphaned kids find their families, but they became multimillionaires when they invented at-home DNA testing kits.

Squints grew up and married Ben Solo. They have nine kids, several of whom they adopted from foster care. They bought Luke’s drugstore, and they still own it to this day.

Phasma became a professional wrestler. You know her as Chrome Dome.

Poe played triple-A ball, but never got to the majors like his husband did. He owns his own business now, and he coaches a little league team that his sons play on.

Rose and I were the last ones to move away from the neighborhood, but when we did, the Sandlot was still there. We’d have stayed, but Rose wanted more green space once we were expecting the twins.

After Finn busted the guts out of that baseball, he became a legend at the Sandlot. From then on, he was known as Finny “The Storm” Trooper, and the nickname stuck with him for the rest of his life. He played for the New York Yankees for a decade, sticking close to Brooklyn, where Poe stayed home with the kids.

We all got together over the years, having enough children between us to field a couple of baseball teams, but the adults were more likely to play than our kids were.

That’s how Rose and I found ourselves back in the small town where it all started, the night before we headed to the Solos’ big house in the valley. Our reunion, which we had every five years, followed a routine of sorts: a movie or two at the drive-in, a trip to Luke’s for malts, some catch at the Sandlot, and then a big picnic in Ben and Rey’s backyard. I was never sure how they wrangled the kids well enough to pull off feeding and hosting so many of us, but they did it every time the Sandies got together.

On second thought, as a parent myself, I _do_ know how they did it.

Tequila.

* * *

His wife was giggling, and Ben Solo had to suppress a grin as he stalked her around their house, following a trail of discarded clothes. “You can’t hide, Rey,” he called. “Not from me.”

“Maybe I want to be caught,” she teased, her voice floating to his ears from somewhere down the hall. 

“You always want to be caught,” Ben growled.

“By you? Always,” Rey sang, and Ben came around the corner, stumbling into their bedroom to find his wife, holding a bottle of tequila and wearing nothing but a smile.

In two long strides, he was in front of her, grabbing the bottle and taking a swig before setting it on their nightstand. Rey was busily pulling off his belt, hands at his zipper as he ripped his shirt off over his head.

“How is it possible,” he mumbled, helping Rey yank his pants off his legs, “that I can still want you this much after all these years?” Ben lifted Rey from her kneeling position and tossed her on the bed.

“How is it possible,” Rey countered, her husband crawling over her, “that you are still this hot after all these years?”

“We’re just lucky, I guess,” Ben murmured, and pressed his mouth to hers.

Rey wound her body around her husband’s, pulling him down to her, wrapping her legs around his lean hips. After three pregnancies and chasing their kids around for nearly two decades, their bodies weren’t what they used to be, but they still couldn’t get enough of each other.

The tequila-fueled chase had been plenty of foreplay for Rey, but Ben was never one to rush any alone time they got. Jyn, their eldest foster daughter, had volunteered to host her siblings for a sleepover at the home she shared with her husband, Cassian.

With the house empty, twilight nearing, and their childhood friends descending on them in the morning, Rey fully intended to make the most of their evening alone.

So when Ben slid down her body, content to spend hours between her legs, Rey stretched languidly on the bed and let her husband pleasure her, as he had done thoroughly in the years since their first kiss at the pool. It still made her smile to remember his shocked outrage, an expression he’d worn countless times in their marriage whenever she or their children did something ridiculous.

He didn’t let her daydream for long, his touch moving from teasing to intense as he thrust his long fingers inside her, his tongue busy on her body, and Rey found herself gripping his thick mane as she rocked her hips against his mouth. She found the silver streaks in her husband’s hair one of the sexiest things about him these days, and looking down at him as he pressed his mouth to her center was enough to send her over the edge of her first orgasm of the night.

She sighed in bliss and Ben rolled them over, his head on the pillows, Rey straddling his face. She reached for the bottle of tequila as he licked at her, taking a sip before sliding down her husband’s body so she sat on his hips, grinding against his hard length. He sat up against the headboard and took the bottle from her, draining the nearly empty bottle and then tossing it on the carpet, where it rolled away with a soft _clink_.

“C’mere, wife,” he murmured, and pulled her face to his. When he kissed her, she could taste tequila and the limes they’d shared earlier and her own essence on his lips. It was unbearably sexy, as was everything about Ben Solo.

She lifted her hips and Ben angled his so that he slid inside her smoothly, years of practice allowing them to give their attention to slow, open-mouthed kisses as she rocked him deeper into her body.

Rey groaned into her husband’s mouth, the feeling of him filling her up still so exquisite, their fit still so perfect. She braced her hands on his broad shoulders and rode him, trailing her lips down his jaw and mouthing at his neck.

“I love you, Ben,” she mumbled. “Thank you for our life.”

He gasped beneath her, eyes locked on hers, always more turned on by her emotional vulnerability than anything else she could possibly do to arouse him. Ben thrust up into her harder as she kept talking.

“Thank you for our home...for our ch-children,” Rey moaned, stumbling over her words as he gripped her hips and pulled her down onto him more fiercely. “Thank you for letting me be yours.” She gasped out the last word as he groaned, and she came all over him yet again, as she always did at the end of their lovemaking. Her eyes slid shut in bliss as he wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her mouth to his, groaning his pleasure when he found his own release.

Breathing heavily, Ben leaned back onto the pillows, holding his wife to his chest, listening to the sound of her breathing level out as she fell into slumber, their bodies still connected.

He pulled the covers over their bodies, and kissed the top of Rey’s head. He pulled off her glasses and placed them carefully on the nightstand.

He smiled down at his wife. 

“I love you too, Squints.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was so much fun to write! Thank you for the prompt, IG, and to my pals in the Writing Den and the Pink Ladies for the sprint encouragement.


End file.
